Elevance Adds to Research Showing Supplemental Benefits Are Crucial for Duals

  • Aug 17, 2023

    Supplemental benefits are popular among Medicare Advantage members, but they’re particularly valuable for Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles, suggests a new report from Elevance Health, Inc.’s Public Policy Institute. Following legislation and regulatory changes in 2018 and 2019 that established new types of supplemental benefits and expanded the definition of what CMS considers “primarily health-related,” payers began to offer supplemental benefits that target members’ health-related social needs (HRSNs), such as food insecurity and lack of access to transportation. Elevance is one of the first payers to release any data on the uptake and utilization of these benefits, while research on duals’ unique social needs and supplemental benefit use continues to emerge. A July 2023 study from Humana Inc., for example, found that 80% of duals in a sample population of its MA enrollees reported experiencing at least one HRSN, vs. 48% of non-duals. Deft Research in its 2023 Dual Eligible Retention Study, meanwhile, found that duals “absolutely depend” on their supplemental benefits and are likely to switch plans if not satisfied with their supplemental benefits. Read more
    © 2024 MMIT
  • Carina Belles

    Carina has been covering public-sector health care since 2018. As a data reporter for Radar on Medicare Advantage, she creates infographics and data stories on issues impacting Medicare, Medicaid and Part D. She also develops AIS Health Daily, a free daily newsletter that showcases AIS’s strong reporting across our four publications and parent company Norstella’s suite of market access and data solutions. Prior to joining the editorial team, she managed Medicare and Medicaid data for the Directory of Health Plans, AIS’s industry-standard health coverage database. She graduated from Ohio University with a B.S. in Journalism.

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